Stallone Collection (1986)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

    The Stallone Collection brings together four Stallone movies of varying quality; Cobra, Demolition Man, The Specialist, and Assassins. As with previous box set collection releases from Warner Home Video, this collection is merely a repackaging of the previously released discs with no additional features other than a perfunctory booklet which replicates the back covers and chapter listings of the previous packages.

    The box set itself is presented as a gatefold package with a slip cover that comes off vertically, the most fragile arrangement of all gatefold packages as the slip cover invariably gets torn fairly early in the life of the package. The slip cover features the classic action image of Sylvester Stallone from Cobra on the front and back.

    A few comments on the specific discs that make up this package are in order;

Cobra - The Region 4 version omits the Audio Commentary and Behind-The-Scenes documentary found on the Region 1 version.

Demolition Man - The Region 4 version is derived from the European master, which badly replaces the Taco Bell product placement with Pizza Hut references. It also omits the Audio Commentary to be found on the Region 1 disc.

The Specialist - Some people may find the opening sequence on the Region 4 version to be marginally out-of-sync. I know I did.

Assassins - My favourite of this batch, and the DVD is quite decent.

    Given the mixed bag status of these discs, it is difficult to give an unreserved recommendation to this box set, even at the relatively bargain price of $79.95 versus $99.80 ($24.95 x 4) for the separate movies. In this case, you are better off picking and choosing the movies you want from the Region you want them from.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Cobra (1986)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1986
Running Time	83:28
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	George P. Cosmatos
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Sylvester Stallone Brigitte Nielsen Reni Santoni
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Sylvester Levay

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Cobra is one of those movies that you either love or you hate. Personally, I liked it because there really is nothing to get too serious about in the film. Even the serial killer concept is played out merely as a device to load up the body count (Silence of the Lambs this isn't). The blood looks fake and the jokes are really lame, but then so is the acting.

    Stallone plays the anti-hero good guy (naturally), Lt Marion Cobretti, a member of the police's "zombie" squad (who tackle the jobs that nobody else wants). His partner, played by Reni Santoni, is a wise-cracking junk food junkie. Called into a hostage drama at a supermarket, Cobretti takes out the miscreant and learns of the "New Order". A couple of nights later, "The Night Slasher" (aka Brian Thompson who also plays the Alien Bounty Hunter in the X-Files and is suitably cast for this role) is seen by Brigitte Nielsen as he takes out his 16th victim. Brigitte also passes for the "eye candy" in this movie. In order to protect his identity, the Slasher goes after Nielsen, backed by his army of "New Order" psychos. Guess who stands in his way...

    George P. Cosmatos, who formerly teamed up with Stallone to make Rambo II, keeps this movie motoring along with a substantial body count and some good old smash-'em-up car chases that are entertaining, if not strictly believable. You never feel like the movie is overly long and there is enough action for any aficionados of the genre. Some of the one-liners are heavy "groan" material like (Bad Guy) "I'll blow this whole place up" (Stallone) "Go ahead, I don't shop here", but then it never claimed to be a Shakespearean drama either.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness varies widely during the movie. Outdoor shots look fine, but many indoor shots are fuzzy. There is a fair amount of grain in the transfer but fortunately it is not a distraction for the most part. Some low level noise is visible. Blacks are mostly solid, but shadow detail is poor with little fine detail visible making some scenes barely discernible.

    The colour looks faded or washed out in many scenes. One review I read of this DVD suggested that there was some colour bleed but I found no evidence of this. The Pepsi sign above Stallone's apartment does exhibit a halo effect, but this is caused more by reflection than any bleed through. I could detect no evidence of edge enhancement, the general 'softness' of the print basically precluded this.

    Film artefacts abound in this transfer. Moiré artefacts can be seen on the venetian blinds in the hospital at 42:15. There is an obvious missing frame at 26:06. There are myriads of little scratches and pieces of missing emulsion throughout the movie. Prime examples can be seen at 2:05 (large spots that look like dirt marks on the left of the screen) and 45:04 (black line down the middle of the picture). The opening credits are especially noteworthy for artefacts, since the red background during most of it highlights the blemishes enormously. There is also a noticeable shudder in the picture at 62:04-62:12 possibly caused by telecine wobble.

    Subtitles were nicely placed at the top of the movie and very readable (they are white and much of the movie is shot at night or in dark places) and weren't obtrusive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Apart from Stallone's tendency to mumble his words, the dialogue was clear and discernible at all times. Audio sync wasn't a problem. You may find the sound effects used throughout the movie very 70s'ish in timbre. Explosions had no real bass undertone to them, and gunshots sounded hollow and dubbed. One very audible pop can be heard at 11:35, but otherwise the soundtrack is nice and clean throughout.

    Sylvester Levay, whose musical credits include Navy Seals, Invaders From Mars, and Howard The Duck has adapted the score well to suit the action. Often using nothing more than subtle bass underlays, his score adds to the dialogue rather than being a distraction. Several songs litter the audio 'landscape' including Suave by Miami Sound Machine and Loving On Borrowed Time by Gladys Knight and Bill Medley amongst others and are quite reasonably located.

    The surround channels barely get used throughout the movie with the exception of some action scenes. At 44:40 you get some noticeable activity as cars scream around corners and again at 47:02 with the sound of explosions being clearly discernible, but otherwise they remained fairly dead.

    The subwoofer, like the surrounds is again barely used and only when there was action on the screen. There are some nice throaty rumbles emanating from the subwoofer at 43:44 during the car chase scene, but unless you really cranked the sound up you'd be hard pressed to really 'feel' any major activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

• nothing of consequence

• 7 Theatrical Trailers
• Audio Commentary by George P Cosmatos
• Behind the scenes documentary
• Production notes

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Demolition Man (1993)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	110:20
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Marco Brambilla
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Sylvester Stallone Wesley Snipes Sandra Bullock Nigel Hawthorne
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Elliot Goldenthal

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, extremely (see Censorship Notes)
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Fast forward 32 years. The world has mellowed out from the hyper-violent 1990s. Things are tranquil, there is peace on Earth, and there is no violence. This seemingly utopian society is presided over by Dr Raymond Cocteau (Nigel Hawthorn), ably assisted by the magnificently corpulent and grovelling Associate Bob (Glenn Shadix).

    Simon Phoenix comes up for parole, and he is awoken from his cryogenic sleep. He escapes, and begins a brutal reign of terror - the pacifist police force of the 2020s is no match for Phoenix's brutal tactics, and so they awaken John Spartan.

    The movie shows two extremes, from the serene and semi-hypnotic vision of the 21st Century, to the ultra-violent juxtaposition of the 1990s way of doing things. I enjoyed the serenity - it was well-written, and an interesting vision of the next century. I thought the violence was way way way over the top (where did that seemingly inexhaustible ammunition originate from?), but I enjoyed the movie overall, except for the very annoying product placement.

Video

    The image is generally sharp and clear. Some of the scenes lacked in definition slightly, and some of the scenes exhibited some graininess. Shadow detail was good, and there was no low level noise.

    The colours were well saturated throughout.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of moderate amounts of aliasing, but this artefact remained at acceptable limits at all times. Film artefacts were rarely present.

Audio

    Dialogue was usually clear and easy to understand, though as is the norm for Sylvester Stallone movies, his dialogue was hard to make out at times.

    The only audio sync problems with this disc occurred as a result of the overdubbing of the words "Pizza Hut" wherever the movie originally had "Taco Bell". Each time this occurred, there was a clear discrepancy between the words which were being said and the mouth movements taking place at the same time. Other than this very annoying issue, there were no audio sync problems with this disc.

    The soundtrack was scored by Elliot Goldenthal and is comprised of a mix of eclectic tunes and heavy action movie scoring. Generallly, it admirably suited the on-screen action.

    The surround channels were very aggressively used for the special effects, especially towards the latter part of the movie, where a nicely enveloping soundfield was created. Music also found its way into the rear channels periodically.

    The .1 channel was heavily used during the special effects sequences, with very good effect.

Menu

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Audio Commentary

• Pan & Scan version

• Cast & Crew Biographies

• Production Notes

• Undubbed product placement

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Nothing

    The Region 1 version of this DVD is the version of choice.

    The video quality is good but not great.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are non-existent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

The Specialist (1994)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Action	Biographies-Cast & Crew Production Notes Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	105
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Luis Llosa
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Sylvester Stallone Sharon Stone James Woods Rod Steiger Eric Roberts
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	John Barry

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The movie opens with a sequence involving Ray Quick (Sylvester Stallone) and Ned Trent (James Woods), whom we are told are working for the CIA and are about to blow up a drug lord. Unfortunately, a little girl is killed in the explosion. Ray is upset. Ned isn't. Ned is clearly the Bad Guy^TM. Ray gets Ned kicked out of the CIA and then goes to ground himself.

    May Munro (Sharon Stone) sees her parents get killed by three mobsters for no reason as a child. She vows revenge, and contacts Ray via a BBS called the Weekend Warrior BBS. She wants Ray to kill the mobsters by blowing them up ("bullets are so imprecise"). For no reason at all, we see Ray beat up some obnoxious punks in a bus so a pregnant woman can have a seat. May meets one of the mobsters and becomes his girlfriend. Ray decides to help May.

    We see a mobster get shot in the head by another mobster (looked pretty precise to me) and then get blown up by Ray's bomb (looked pretty imprecise to me). Ned is involved with this particular mob family, and so he gets assigned to the police task force investigating the bombing. He gets to strut around and curl his upper lip a lot and generally act like a Bad Guy^TM.

    Next, the second mobster is blown up ("bye-bye").

    Next, we find out that May is setting up Ray so that Ned can get to him since Ned is pretty sore at Ray for having him kicked out of the CIA.

    Next, the third mobster, Tomas Leon (Eric Roberts, Julia's brother), is killed. This makes Joe Leon (Rod Steiger) mad since Tomas was his son. Joe Leon is supposed to be the sinister Mob Boss^TM, but comes across more like Joe Dolce than anything else. Joe tells Ned to get Ray or else. In this confusion, we are unsure whether or not May has been killed but it turns out she wasn't and gets to meet Ray. They have sex in a hotel room. Look, Fred, look, Sharon Stone naked. Look, Fred, look, Sylvester Stallone is a really small guy (in height). May goes away. Ned finds her. Ned finds Ray. Ray escapes. More mobsters die in what is supposed to be a thrilling action sequence in the hotel but which just looks fake.

    Ned figures out where Ray lives. Ned goes there. Things are blown up. Ray escapes. Joe Leon is blown up for good measure. The movie ends. Ray and May live happily ever after. Thank God it's only 105 minutes long in PAL instead of 109 minutes (NTSC).

Video

    This transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The movie was razor sharp at all times. Shadow detail was superb with clear shadow details and not a trace of noise.

    The colour was perfectly rendered throughout the transfer. There were many dimly-lit scenes, and a number of scenes with high red content, but they all transferred perfectly to video.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts were non-existent. I noted a few trivial film artefacts very occasionally, but nothing of note. This is an exceptionally clean transfer.

Audio

    Dialogue was generally clear and intelligible, though somewhat hard to understand in some places, most notably when Sylvester Stallone was speaking in some places, though this is as much Sylvester's as the transfer's fault. Of more concern, the dialogue and sound effects at the start of the movie were out of sync with the picture slightly, being marginally delayed for the first few scenes. This markedly detracted from the impact of the opening sequence.

    The music is unremarkable.

     The surround channels were used during special effects sequences to create an enveloping soundfield. They were also active during a lot of the music, and at times to add ambience to the movie.

    The .1 channel was mainly used to underscore the action sequences, which featured frequent explosions, and which it did well.

    The other extras on this DVD are still frames for the cast and crew biographies, still framed brief production notes and Reel Recommendations. Reel Recommendations are still frames of other Warner DVD titles that the stars and the director were involved with.

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Pan & Scan version

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Nothing

    There is no compelling reason to prefer one version over the other.

    There are many senseless scenes in the movie, such as the bus sequence, a silly sequence where Sylvester poses for the presumed benefit of the female audience, and a number of sequences where Sharon does this a bit, too. There is also a lot of smoking in this movie, quite clearly promoting smoking rather than advancing plot.

    The video quality is stunning. This transfer now takes the crown of best Region 4 DVD video transfer. This is about the only good thing I have to say about this movie.

    The audio quality is generally good, but dialogue is sometimes hard to hear, and is marginally out of sync early on in the movie. However, it does normalize within the first five minutes.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Assassins (1995)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Biographies-Cast & Crew Production Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	127
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Richard Donner
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Sylvester Stallone Antonio Banderas Julianne Moore
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Mark Mancina

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Robert accepts one final contract; to kill the seller and the buyers of some intercepted information on computer disc. The seller is Electra (Julianne Moore), and the price is $2,000,000. Once again, Miguel Bain beats Robert to the sellers, but Robert refuses to kill Electra, and escapes with her. The price of the disc goes up to $20,000,000, which incidentally Electra reads off the screen as $25,000,000, a subtle continuity fault. The price is paid, but not before Robert Rath himself becomes the target.

    There is action aplenty in the movie, and quite an intriguing storyline to boot. The stunts are tremendous, and the characters are also quite well-developed and intriguing. Antonio Banderas is excellent as an unhinged killer who wants to become "number one" - by killing Robert Rath if necessary. Sylvester Stallone is uncharacteristically profound in his role, and uncharacteristically easy to understand. There are many twists and turns to the plot, which is actually very clever, and it will keep you guessing until the very end. Several surprises await you at the end of the movie, where a number of mysterious loose ends are tied up. Overall, this is a very satisfying movie from both the action and the storyline point of view.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. The entire frame is used for a lot of this movie, especially the computer graphics, where I found that the edges of the displays were being cut off. This, unfortunately, is the result of horizontal overscan in my display device, so I cannot comment on whether or not the framing was appropriate or not, given that the original aspect ratio of this movie was 1.85:1. We are either getting slightly less of the edges or slightly more of the top and bottom of the screen. I moved the horizontal position around a bit, and it seems as if at least the left edge of the picture is fully intact, though I am not sure about the right side.

    The transfer was very sharp at all times. Shadow detail was mostly superb, but with the odd scene here and there lacking a little in shadow detail. No low level noise was present.

    The colours were nicely rendered in this transfer, ranging from muted and sedate in the darker scenes to vivid and vibrant in the higher lit sequences.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts were virtually non-existent, with occasional small amounts of aliasing being present here and there. Film artefacts were common in the first five minutes, but then settled down to the occasional spot or scratch here and there.

Audio

    Dialogue was clear all of the time, even from Sylvester Stallone.

    The music is tremendous at creating atmosphere in this movie. It is often present, and is quite strident and percussive at times, all very appropriate for the on-screen action. It is aggressively mixed into the surround channels, creating a superbly enveloping soundtrack.

     The surround channels were moderately heavily used for music, effects and some ambience. The music in particular helped to give a nearly continuous surround presence. Coupled with the aggressive mix of the action sequences into the surrounds, this made for a superbly enveloping surround experience.

    The .1 channel was used for the music and for effects. It was moderately heavily used.

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Production Notes

Cast & Crew Biographies

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Fullscreen version

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Nothing

    There is no compelling reason to prefer one version over the other.

    The video quality has a number of minor problems early on, but then settles down to be an excellent transfer.

    The audio quality is very good with clear dialogue and a nicely enveloping surround presence.

    The extras are very limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall